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I am attempting to create a binary cloud mask from the MOD35_L2 data products located at http://ladsweb.nascom.nasa.gov/data/ When opening the MOD35_L2 data in ENVI or the MRTSwath tool it reports 6 bands of data (which I believe is due to ENVI/MRTSwath reading the hdf data incorrectly) Is there a way to use ENVI or MRTSwath to create a MODIS cloud mask?

How can I process a binary cloud mask from the hdf files?

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  • When fed with MOD35_L2 as input, MRTswath gives 6 tif files (b0,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5) as output. Does these 6 images (8 bit each) represent the 6 different bytes of the 48 bit modis cloud mask? If yes, is the following order correct : b0 (bits 7-0), b1 (bits 15-8), b2 (bits 23-16), b3 (bits 31-24), b4 (bits 39-32), b5 (bits 47-40)?
    – Manu Tom
    Jul 20, 2017 at 13:20
  • You should ask your own question topic - not use the 'Answer' function to ask questions. However, the answer to your question is "no". You should read the User Guide for the MOD35_L2 product: modis-images.gsfc.nasa.gov/_docs/CMUSERSGUIDE.pdf
    – Mikkel Lydholm Rasmussen
    Jul 20, 2017 at 13:48
  • If you have a new question, please ask it by clicking the Ask Question button. Include a link to this question if it helps provide context. - From Review
    – mgri
    Jul 20, 2017 at 14:05

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Use LDOPE-1.7 (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/tools/ldope_tools), using "create_mask". this function takes MOD35_L2 HDF and creates a cloud mask in hdf. use MRTSwath tool for projection/re-sampling/clipping and convert new hdf to GeoTiff.

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  • Welcome to GIS SE! Although your answer may be correct, about a paragraph is considered minimum length for answers (and questions) so I recommend that you expand upon it with a brief detail or two. Also, there is no need to sign your posts here because every answer, question and comment is already signed by your user card.
    – PolyGeo ♦
    Jul 17, 2014 at 21:39
  • Thanks for your response. I ended up using MRTSwath to export the Cloud_Mask SDS to geotiff. I realized the 6 bands that it outputted were each byte of the 48 bit cloud mask. (6 bands * 8 bits per pixel = 48 bits). Since the last two bytes of the cloud mask are binary cloud masks, I used band 5 or 6. Would using LDOPE give me a different result?
    – Graham
    Jul 18, 2014 at 15:17
  • LDOPE has a function for creating cloud mask using one command line. if you are a modis user, I'd suggest to have a look at LDOPE functions. I didn't process MOD35 using MRTSwath.
    – Leila
    Jul 18, 2014 at 17:44

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